1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to clamp-type garment hangers.
2. State of the Art
Clamp-type garment hangers having two clamps are well-known for the suspension or hanging of garments such as pants, skirts, etc. The “pinch-type” clamp is a variety of clamp that has a pair of opposed jaw members between which a portion of the garment is secured. Provision is made for biasing the jaw members towards each other to create the clamping force necessary to retain a garment between inner surfaces of the jaw members. The jaw members are manipulated (typically by squeezing or pinching handles of the jaw members toward one another) to cause the jaw members to open to receive or release a garment. To further retain the garment between the inner surfaces of the members, the clamp or jaw members typically also include inner surface gripping elements or friction increasing surfaces.
While the known clamp-type hangers are useful in holding a variety of garments, long garments (such as pants) typically extend far below the garment hanger. This requires that a display rack that showcases such garments provide a large vertical dimension. The large vertical dimension limits the number of articles that can be made readily visible and presented to the customer for a given amount of wall space/display space. In addition, the large vertical dimension limits the suitability of the clamp-type hanger in space-limited environments such as shipping containers, cartons, and warehouses.
Thus, there remains a need in the art to provide an improved clamp-type garment hanger that enables a reduction in the vertical dimension of a garment held by the garment hanger.